The current delay is: - 60 minutes

(hover for more info)

You must post a clear and direct question, and only the question, in your title. Any context or clarification should be posted in the text box.
Any answers to the question, including your own, should go in the comments as a reply to your own post. more >>

Any post asking for advice should be generic and not specific to your situation alone. more >>

*Bye Reddit. Logging out, you can keep insulting me but you'll only be talking to yourself. I'd like to thank those who actually gave me support. *

Once again, I went to the doctor before I read a single reply on here.. I apologize for leaving out the part about this being just a last case scenario in case I couldn't find someone to take my insurance. No need to bite the head off of a redditor in need, though.

I'm sorry to ruin the streak of "Does anyone else like boobies" karma whore posts but heres a serious one for AskReddit. Just looking for an opinion.

So I just got over a cold and the day I started recovering I noticed a bit of swelling on my abdomen 2 inches below belly button down to the pubic hair. After I got back from classes, it had gone away but I noticed my the left side of my scrotum and my pelvis area was swollen.

So now, it has been about 36 hours since I first noticed the swelling, and it has continued to get larger. It's completely painless except for a tender area 2 inches left of belly button (from my perspective) and 2 inches down.

So I have two questions:
1) Has anyone encountered this problem before?
2) Should I sprint to the emergency room and blow all my cash to have a disgruntled tired old nurse fondle my balls or can it wait till Monday when the university clinic ($5 + medicine cost) is open?

tl;dr - The left side of my scrotum is reaching max level.

If you don't know an answer please upvote so I can get one. If this one doesn't end up in ShittyAdvice I lose faith in Reddit.

edit: so I should have mentioned I was actively searching for a night clinic that would take my insurance as I wrote this. I finally found one about 10 minutes after writing this and immediately left. The doctor was baffled... because I didn't have any of the other symptoms that any of the other diseases should have had (and no hernia). So he diagnosed me with Epididymitis but he wasn't sure.

I'm sorry this pissed you off so much, you may go back to looking at pictures of each other's cats.

edit 2
Oh and thanks to those who actually answered my questions instead of insulting my intelligence. I know I neglected the important information that I was almost definitely going tonight if financially possible, but thats no excuse for the insults. Especially about my intelligence. I'm on a full scholarship to a top university (+ other scholarships that go straight to a credit union -- which I couldn't withdraw from tonight). But yeah, your e-penis is so big.

I have had an Inguinal hernia, it manifested itself as a painless bulge on my pelvic bone above my penis. It can cause death if gone untreated, depending on the severity, usually you would experience pain first as a result of intestinal blockage. I would wait until Monday, assuming it's pain free. I am the frugal sort though...

Having small junk, very embarassing. Having to reveal small junk to hospital staff because of hernia, reason to take up drinking. Having a photo of the whole affair wind up on wikipedia for the rest of the world to see.... Seppuku!

I had this happen to me. It was initially painless, but give it some time. ohshitmyballswtf's intestines are literally poking through a hole, a tear in the muscles that keeps his guts in.

That's fine and dandy - it's all in a nice blood-filled balloon. But just wait for a loop of that intestine to get pinched by some movement that causes the muscle wall to contract around it. The pain will be epic. It will be as if someone has heated a knife to white hot temperature and then rammed it straight into his crotch.

Mine was sorted out via laproscopic surgery. They went in through my belly button using little robot arms. They used these to pull all my guts back into my abdomen. Then they sewed the muscle shut, and implanted a metal mesh sheet across the place where it happened, to strengthen it. Yes, I officially have metal parts in my crotch. I am Robodick.

I once met a homeless guy who had a hernia and his balls were, I shit you not, the size of grapefruits. When he sat down he had to physically move his balls out of the way. The guy was starving to death since he couldn't dumpster dive so we got him a sandwich...

I've never had a hernia and I've never heard of a hernia that permitted this, maybe my lymph node assessment is wrong. But wouldn't something have to cause the hernia, like severe coughing or bad lifting, and wouldn't the hernia itself cause severe pain?

I had an inguinal hernia five or six years ago, and it was completely painless. I was told that it could have been caused by something I did or by a congenital weakness in the muscle wall of the abdomen. The blood vessels that power your testicles come through on the right and left sides of your abdomen, about an inch higher than your wang. It can be a bit of a structural weakness even if you don't do anything to make it worse.

I'm a nurse -Most of those lymph nodes are not palpable. You can only feel the preauricular, post auricular, superficial cervical, inferior cervical, submandibular, submental, supraclavicular, axillary, epitrochlear and inguinal.

If his inguinal lymph nodes are swollen from sickness, it'll be bilateral (both sides), and it will be moveable and tender. If it's cancer, it will we unilateral (one sided) and immoveable, also not tender.

So, if it's swollen to the point I seem to be imagining it is, you need to go to the hospital and talk to that "disgruntled tired old nurse". Because it might be referred pain from an organ - which would be life threatening. Good luck.

This was my first guess as well from the symptoms. I've had a couple bizarre lymph node inflammations in my life, one on my neck where one side of my neck looked like that of a bullfrog for a week or two. Freaked me out, and they said maybe they should slice open my neck and drain shit, but maybe not, my call. I said I'd see how it gets, and it got better.

I had one in my groin as well after an illness, a puffiness on one side and a dull soreness from the swelling, this also went away shortly.

Long story short, probably see a doctor, especially if it seems to be getting worse, but these things happen and from my own personal experience, they can resolve themselves without any slicing.
That said, lymph nodes are susceptible to cancers and so medical advice might should be sought just to get confirmation that it is nothing major.

I apologize if I didn't come off politely in my first post. I made my point a bit tersely, and I didn't mean it to come off that way. I've had the concept of "don't give medical advice to your friends and family yet" a lot recently in various lectures; it really is emphasized.
I know you're just throwing out a diff. diag; keep it up.

Students give advice that people sometimes take seriously. This can hurt, or even kill people. I feel very strongly about the ethics of this- the OP is a real person with a real medical problem, and crowdsourcing via reddit isn't exactly reliable.
I know he gave a "but seriously" caveat- however, armchair diagnoses DO kill people. Even well meant ones.

I didn't see an armchair diagnoses before or after the edit. I saw someone making a guess as to what it might be, not offering any sort of potential treatment options or indicating whether or not the OP should be more or less concerned for his health, and then told him to see a doctor. Looked pretty safe to me.

It could be one of several things that I can think of. An inguinal hernia, epididymitis, or testicular hydrocele. Those are my guesses, but my advice is to see a doctor post haste. That is an important area.

Sorry to hijack but I don't want you to have to go looking everywhere for the information. There a multiple things it could be. In the best case scenario it is epididymitis, which is an infection in the epididymis of the testicle. I have had this. It hurts, but antibiotics takes care of it in a day or two. Worst case scenario is that it is testicular torsion. This is when the testicle gets twisted around itself and this can result in eventual loss of blood to the testicle and death of the testicle (ie: your nick name becomes johnny one ball). Either way, going to the hospital is not enough. When I had epididymitis my primary care doctor told me that it could be x, y, or z but that he didn't feel comfortable diagnosising it because these are difficult diseases to diagnose and are usually treated by urologist.

therefore: You have to go to a urologist within the next couple of days. Call them up and tell them your symptoms. Most receptionist will realizes these are urgent symptoms and will schedule you right away. If not, ask to speak to a nurse or doctor.

I'm a cheap old fuck if there ever was one but sometimes man, you just gotta suck it up and let an old woman gander your balls. Significantly more expensive than a whore, and exponentially less pleasurable, yet somehow good for you.

The lump on your abdomen sounds just like the hernia I had back when I was 15. Hernias are not medical emergencies unless accompanied by pain (intestinal blockage), but you'll have to have it surgically corrected sometime soon.

Pain in your testicles, on the other hand, MUST be taken care of ASAP. If your testicle hurts, GO TO THE ER, or you risk losing your testicle. Possibilities include testicular torsion, which is incredibly painful and must be dealt with immediately.

This. ESPECIALLY if you just got over a cold. It may sound stupid, but it's not all that uncommon for a really good cough to cause a hernia. You may have already had a weak spot in your abdomen and the cough could have been just the thing to push your sausage casing right through.

Hernias actually can be emergencies as well. I had one over my navel when I was about 24; the pain started the night before and by morning the doctor was telling me that the material that had come through was constricted and had become gangrenous tissue. So lo and behold, emergency surgery after drinking all night for St. Paddy's.

Yes, they certainly can be, and I didn't mean to imply otherwise. But I think that constriction is always accompanied by pain. Both of my hernias were painless, just... uncomfortable in a way that's tough to describe. Hence, I didn't need to rush to the hospital right away. Hope yours turned out alright.

He's not in any pain. He can wait 2 days and get nearly free help, or he can go right now and blow an obscene amount of money (I'm assuming this is in the US for the sole reason that I am in the US so I naively assume EVERYONE IS IN THE US.../s)

If it gets painful or things get worse, then yes, absolutely go. Otherwise, I'd want to save a thousand+ dollars and wait a weekend, too.

As someone who enjoys the benefits of an evil socialist killer death panel heath system - fuck your US health system. This is the umpteenth time I've come across some post by a USA-ian with some critical medical issue who suffers through it because they can't afford it.

Problem with my balls? Straight to the hospital. None of this "OMG it'll cost me $1000 if I can't find some place that'll take my insurance" for me.

I'd put my money on a hernia, which can cause a lot of problems if you don't get it checked out asap. I strongly recommend you go to Emergency. The nurse may be old and tired and disgruntled, but they have the experience and still do their job and if there is a problem, then it will be fixed. Leaving it to Monday could seriously complicate the situation and may result in a lot more medical costs than the $5 you were hoping to pay. Whatever it is, it doesn't sound like something that'll go away with a few pills from the pharmacy anyway.

I'm not a doctor, but I have had two hernias in that area. If your junk is swelling and it is a hernia (not a diagnosis, just saying if this is the case), you could have intestines pushing through your abdominal wall into your sack. If this is the case, this is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND YOU NEED TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL NOW!

Snippet of text from wikipedia describing the risks:
When a hernia is not repaired, it may become incarcerated or strangulated. When strangulation occurs, there is a danger that part of the intestine be caught in the hernia cutting off blood supply to the tissue. Also, when a bowel obstruction occurs, it leads to severe pain, vomiting, nausea and inability to have a bowel movement or pass gas. Men are more prompt to suffer inguinal hernias than women, and they risk a damage to their testicles if a hernia becomes strangulated. Also, the pressure caused on the hernia's surrounding tissues may extend into the scrotum causing pain and swelling.

Seriously, get your ass to a doctor immediately. You do not want dead intestinal or testicular tissue.

Why did you leave it so long during the week that your choice becomes "expensive or wait out the weekend"?

My guess is you have so many tapeworms they have burrowed out through your intestines and are now filling up your abdominal cavity. Inside you is the Turing Machine's hypothetical infinitely long tape(worm).

What you need is to find a mystic, and hold a seance to try and contact Turing and see if he can solve the Halting Problem for this specific scenario and can tell you when your worm breeding will halt.

I have had hernia and this sounds very similar. Your intestines slip into the scrotum due to weak muscles or due to excessive strain, it can be pushed back into its place. If they cannot, it will form gangrene and hell will break loose. Please go to emergency room before they decide you need to loose some intestine.

Third year med student here. Based on the description, it could be several things, all of which have been touched on, all of which require medical attention. In my (in)experienced opinion, it sounds most like epidydimitis/orchitis (inflammation of the epididymis/testicle) or a hydrocele. Hernias typically produce a large amount of pain, which you are not describing; however, one cannot be excluded without a proper physical by your doctor. The pain 2 inches down and 2 inches over from your belly button sounds like a lymph node, but could also be pressure from a hydrocele, referring pain to that area. You should go to the hospital in a reasonable time period. Epididymitis/orchitis needs to be treated with antibiotics (or at least evaluated for a bacterial cause), and one of the potential complications of a hydrocele is a decrease in arterial blood flow to the testicle....you can figure out what that does. But again, I'm not saying it's 100% one or the other, but just off the top of my head, that's what I would think if I saw you in clinic. Just get to a doctor soon to make sure there's no permanent damage done. Best of luck.

ms4 here. i'm pretty sure most indirect hernias do not present w/ pain, people often don't care about a growing scrotum so you won't necessarily have them coming in with the complaint. they are less likely to be vascularly compromised so i think they don't have as much pain. vs something like a femoral hernia that would be much more likely to be compromised and cause pain. i could be wrong, but that's what i've seen. let me know if you feel that what i just says doesn't make sense. surgery is not my specialty of choice

theres actually quite a few indirect hernias that present with pain. the question is whether it's reducible or not -- if it's incarcerated, then u're worried about the bowel becoming ischemic (strangulated). vascular compromise has less to do with the type of hernia than the size (smaller actually tends to be more dangerous).

also, i would care quite a bit if i had a rapidly growing scrotum. the other day, we drained 4 liters from a hydrocele. the man had BALLS.

I see your point. I got caught up on his recent illness, and thought perhaps that had something to do with it, which is why I listed epididymitis and orchitis. I've only had the clinical experience of the first two years, plus part of an infectious disease clerkship at this point. I've seen a hydrocele once and multiple cases of epididymitis (worked with a lot of homeless older gentlemen with flow problems), but have yet to encounter an indirect hernia (go figure...). In my mind's eye, both fit based on his description of the swelling and relatively low pain level. After reading about it in Harrison's, an indirect hernia is equally if not more likely. Learn something everyday

Also, don't expect a good differential except the most obvious one (which is herniation, as others have said) without a physical exam and a directed history, which only the physician will do. I mean, I could give you a complete differential list, but they'll be unlikely and will only worry you, probably for nothing.

Go find a clinic that's open on the weekend, or the ER, if that's what it comes down to.

Holy shit, this topic made me go looking for some more info, and I'm 99% sure that I have a hernia!! I never really thought much of it because I've had it since I was at least 10 year old (that's when I first noticed it, at least). I guess I should go see my doctor...

Hey, man. I hope you're ok. Reddit's kind of fucking stupid. Obviously you know you should go to a doctor; you just want to get some more feedback...see if anyone else can possibly give you some more information. Doctors know a lot, but they don't know everything. Anyways, sorry you had to deal with Reddit's "go to a doctor, you're so stupid omfg lol this guys a noob" bullshit. You just wanted to see if anyone else could tell you a little bit more, give you a little bit more insight. Good luck and I hope everything turns out alright.

i'm thinking hernia. my brother had one not too long ago. he complained about some abdominal pain and some testicular swelling. it takes minor surgery to repair, but it could get serious if it goes untreated.

my cousin had rapid swelling in his testicle and he had a rapidly growing tumor. If it stops swelling or goes down with anti-inflammatory drugs, you might wait it out. If not, that's your future reproduction on the line.

This depends, do you like your scrotum? See, the problem with the "let's play amateur telemed" is that the human body is so amazingly complex that just about everything diagnosable has symptoms that could fall into "it's nothing" and "oh my god you poor bastard" equally.

As a general rule (keep in mind I'm no doctor, though I've done my small part to combat Darwin) I say don't fuck around with your cajones, metaphorically anyway. You may go get fondled by the grumpy grandma nurse to find out it's perfectly benign swelling or fluid accumulation that will go away on it's own with no ill effects.......but do you REALLY want to take the chance that you could end up like Lance Armstrong (except crying on the floor like a little bitch because you're not a world class athlete)??

FYI: An easy way to see if its a hernia, is it cough and see if the bulge moves. Also, try lying down, does the swelling (or possible hernia) lessen or disappear? Can you push the swelling upwards and into the stomach?

If the bulge moves or lessens when you lie down then its a hernia. Just walk into the hospital not emergency room and they should take care of you.

More than likely you have a hydrocele. Worst case you have a twisted testicle and you have probably waited too long and it will need amputated. I had a hydrocele and the doctor told me it is an accumulation of fluid in the testicle or down the tube which originates about in the area you speak of. I used warm compresses on my testicle for a weekend to get rid of the problem.

Hi everybody! From my day to day regimen of working in the free clinics, I can say with absolute certainty that you have a hamster in your small intestines! The exact cause still remains a mystery to us in the medical profession, but this usually happens after a night of binge drinking. Wait 48 to 72 hours, and if it is the hamster king, it will find it's own way out, ridding you of your ailments!

I'm gonna say that as a general rule if something on your body doesn't seem normal, and either continues to get worse or doesn't clear up after a few days, get it checked out even if it might be embarrassing or expensive. Because a little expense or embarrassment is better than exploded testes.

So... My BF had a similar problem and went to several doctors which cost a bunch of money with his crappy insurance. They ended up telling him it was epididymitis. The antibiotics did not help so several hundred dollars later he ended up at a specialist who told him he ad a vericose vein in one of his balls which was causing all the swelling and pain in his stomach. Apparently this is kinda common, but most regular doctors don't catch it, so it might be something to ask about if you don't get better.

I have had epididymitis on/off for the last 4 years and let me tell you -- it is scary every time it flares up. In fact, I'm in the middle of a flare up right now. Fucking sucks, it's like sitting in a perfectly comfortable chair only there is a small rock under one of your testicles always applying pressure. You can have pain that surrounds your testicle (my left one is the one that gives me trouble) and then can radiate up your flank sometimes above the belly button. Typical treatment is antibiotics for 14 days or 30 days if you have chronic flare-ups like me. Anyways you're not alone, and it's scarier because of the location of your body. When I first got it, my blood pressure was skyrocketing because I kept thinking in my head "this is cancer, this is cancer, this is cancer." I'm not here to tell you it isn't cancer -- but if it's epididymitis, it sucks but you're not alone.

Jesus Christ, don't act like such a pussy. What so you expect, posting a serious medical question involving your balls? Of course reddit is going to insult you for being an idiot and not going to the doctor unless you actually indicate you went. Stop being a goddamn crybaby and asking the Internet for advice if you're just going to get pissed off.

Reddit is not the place to ask for serious medical advice. You could have at least gone to webmd.com or anywhere that actually has to do with medicine. Go to the hospital immediately if you value your health and your penis. If not, then take your time, worst case scenario you lose your penis. Whatevs.

Really, just think about the type of people that usually read and respond and ask yourself if you want them to be your doctor.

Your passive-aggressive edits make me lol. How you went from saying you imagine this will end up in ShittyAdvice to getting your panties in a bunch over people telling you to see a doctor is beyond me.

I was just released from the hospital yesterday(thurs) after being admitted to emergency last Saturday w/ a swollen left testicle that was/is a symptom of serious blood clots around my kidneys. I am now on blood thinners and a clot could still break off and kill me at any time. Don't fuck around, really! Don't wait until it's too late. I almost did.

if it's painful it could be testicular torsion and a medical emergency - that's hospital as quickly as possible unless you want to lose your testicle. Though it's possible that you have epiditimitis also, but normally that comes with pain.

painless could be a number of things - hernia (intestines going into your scrotum), hydrosele (sp? but it's a collection of fluid around your testical, clincial tested using a flashlight). lymph node is a good guess for the lump under your belly button, but the lymph nodes in that region that swell are most often at the diagnoal area where your legs meet your body (the inguinal area) - this could be the painful node you feel two inches Left and Down. If so it's likely that you have some sort of infection.

red, swelling, painful testical - hospital

not those things, you can wait but honestly you are taking a huge chance in my opinion. they need to do an ultrasound to rule out. also more history about recent infections, sexual intercourse, what it feels like in your scrotum is really needed to make a better guess at the diagnosis. but since i can't talk to you in person/do a physical those are the things that go through dr's heads, plus probably some other things, but that's a pretty through differential.

Have you ever had Mononucleosis before? When I had it last year my neck did the whole bullfrog thing cause mono attacks the lymph nodes. there's also a lymph node about where you described. If you do have mono, you cna kiss this school term goodbye, trust me. When I was sick I had maybe an hour every day when I could even get outta bed

I'm a doctor, albeit a junior one. You could have a hernia from coughing, or a hydrocele but I think it would be best that you let someone examine you. So fork out the $ and go to a doctor you silly thing!

You can call the ER first and speak to a nurse to see whether it's something to get checked out. I would see a doctor sooner rather than later. I don't have balls, but if one of them was looking wonky, I'd take it seriously.